As sports enthusiasts go, golfers don’t tend to be the most excitable bunch. You won’t see any flashy, end-zone style dancing, witness two golfers high-fiving or chest-bumping, or suffer uncomfortably through one player loudly talking smack to the other (at least, it wouldn’t be the norm). The most you’ll generally get out of these guys and gals is a fist pump or a finger point to the sky to signal that they have more than just a passing interest in the fact that they’ve gotten a hole in one or that they’re pulling ahead of their competitors on the course. But don’t let this staid attitude fool you; avid golfers harbor a deep love for their sport, and many will watch videos at home, take private lessons, and spend hours on the driving and putting ranges in order to hone their skills and improve their overall game. It is for these die-hard golfers that the GolfLink Game Tracker & GPS app was created.

At $9.99 this app isn’t the cheapest on the market, but neither is it the most expensive (and that’s by a long-shot – some come out to $30-40 and they may even come with annual fees). Plus, it comes with nearly everything a golfer might need for a day on the links. For starters, it allows you to track not only your own game, but also keep score for three of your friends. And it comes complete with information pertaining to over 21,000 courses in the U.S. and Canada (unfortunately they don’t yet feature locales outside of North America), making it a great way to potentially get a leg up on the competition when it comes to your game.

Of the courses provided, more than half include an aerial view. But all the courses listed are rounded out by valuable user information, such as yardage calculations for your current hole (thanks to the range-finder feature), the location of hazards you’ll want to avoid, and a tool to calculate your handicap (if you don’t already have a USGA handicap). You can also find out what the wind-speed is to help you engineer the perfect shot (and get the overall weather report while you’re at it). And you’ll have access to stat-tracking (including accuracy, scoring, and trends in your game over time) and a feature that lets you save your scorecard and share it via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

Aside from all of this, the fee you pay to download the app is a one-time deal; you won’t face the mandatory annual fees associated with some other apps, many of which are more expensive (although you can upgrade to the premium version at greater cost should you so choose). At the very least it’s probably less than paying for a rangefinder, and it comes with a lot of additional features to recommend it, as well. So whether you’re traveling to play a Hawaii, California, or Orlando golf course, this app can give you the tools you need to scout the course and improve your game on the go.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

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